Tales of the Heart tells two compelling stories of two incredibly different women. While The Strawberry Patch and The Serengeti are wonderfully different, they are remarkably alike, drawing the reader in with the one thing we all hold in common, heart. The Strawberry Patch tells the story of the bond between a young girl and her father, the love they shared, having it, losing it, and rediscovering the wonders of such a bond all over again. The Serengeti brings you two interwoven stories, where we see beauty in bonds formed in unexpected places. Truly inspirational tales, these pieces give us a lot to think about, and provide a tremendous gift to those of us who allow ourselves to be touched by their words.

SERENGETI: Those vast African grasslands where God poured out herds of wildlife to trek across the savannahs after the thunderous rains. He turned the full brilliance of the sun on the land for warmth. He then put people there and gave them cattle for their wealth and music for their joy. Hear the call of the birds, and smile as the children play Somewhere, a lion roars as the sun sinks below the horizon. Warm winds carry the smell of rain and the heady odor of human toil as a stew cooks over a charcoal fire. Human tragedy unfolds in slavery and disease. Strangers from other lands come, some to love and care, some to destroy, most without regard to the fragile Serengeti. Come with me and meet the many--both native and transplant--who live, love, and die in this magnificently brutal land.

America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than two hundred years ago these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write, "it is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals." In a work that is at once a lyrical evocation of that lost splendor and a detailed natural history of these charismatic species of the historic Great Plains, veteran naturalist and outdoorsman Dan Flores draws a vivid portrait of each of these animals in their glory—and tells the harrowing story of what happened to them at the hands of market hunters and ranchers and ultimately a federal killing program in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Great Plains with its wildlife intact dazzled Americans and Europeans alike, prompting numerous literary tributes. American Serengeti takes its place alongside these celebratory works, showing us the grazers and predators of the plains against the vast opalescent distances, the blue mountains shimmering on the horizon, the great rippling tracts of yellowed grasslands. Far from the empty "flyover country" of recent times, this landscape is alive with a complex ecology at least 20,000 years old—a continental patrimony whose wonders may not be entirely lost, as recent efforts hold out hope of partial restoration of these historic species. Written by an author who has done breakthrough work on the histories of several of these animals—including bison, wild horses, and coyotes—American Serengeti is as rigorous in its research as it is intimate in its sense of wonder—the most deeply informed, closely observed view we have of the Great Plains' wild heritage.

A real "Boy's Own" adventure - but Barefoot over the Serengeti is factual, not fiction. It is a unique and evocative tale of childhood adventure in a world that very few Europeans have experienced. Barefoot is a "must read" for anyone even remotely interested in Africa!